Dark Misfortunes
by ProjectMischa
Summary: It seemed like I would have a wonderful vacation from hero work, but a mission assigned to me by S.H.I.E.L.D. changed all of that. At first, it seemed like a simple research mission, check out an anomaly and report back to Fury. But, it seems that I got a lot more than I bargained for. Sequel to The Fire's Illusion. Rated M for language, suggestive themes, and other things.
1. Chapter 1

**All right! Another story with Robin set in The Fire's Illusion universe. XD I think I'll have a lot of fun with this story, and another one that I plan on writing as well once I get around to it. Obviously, if you haven't read The Fire's Illusion yet, I'd advise you to read that before you check this one out, otherwise you might be a little bit confused with this story. I've also decided to not name my chapters for this one because I ran out of chapter names when I did that for Permanent Scars. XD Never again! And the chapters are gonna be a lot longer than they used to be, so that'll be more reading material for you all.**

**Also, I'm obviously gonna have to make a lot of changes to the original story with this version, but that's a given considering how I ended TFI. XD Which means the ending might be completely different from the movie ending, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I hope you enjoy this story like I've enjoyed writing the chapters so far!**

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It had been a few weeks since the last major battle for Earth, and things had been going incredibly well. My friends and I had a nice leave of absence from catastrophic disasters, and the vacation was absolutely refreshing for me. It gave me plenty of opportunities to be with the man that I loved, a deity from Old Norse Mythology named Loki.

It was almost ironic, now that I thought about it. When I had first met him, he had been planning an attack on my planet to take control of it. The Avengers, a team of superheroes, defeated him. I became involved when I stowed away with Captain America to help him out, considering the fact that the first Avenger was my foster brother. Back then, I had hated Loki, but after a long series of conflicted and confusing events, I grew to love him. Sometimes, merely thinking about it made me laugh a little.

My friends, the Avengers, still had mixed feelings about my relationship with Loki, especially my brother named Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton. Natasha was still convinced that Loki couldn't be trusted, and Clint pretty much agreed with her on everything, plus, Clint still wanted to put an arrow through Loki's eye socket and use him as target practice. Steve was merely just being an overprotective brother and constantly made sure I was safe around Loki. All of those factors made it incredibly hard for me to get any true alone time with the God of Mischief, but combining his cunning mind and my devious plans, we managed to steal a few moments together. So far, in my eyes, the year had been going along pretty well. But, like most things, it didn't last very long.

The day had started out fairly normally. Loki and I were going around the city, bringing our gloriously creative chaos to the citizens while I admired my handsome man. All of it was entirely in good fun and was amusing to both of us. And then the sky suddenly erupted before us in a loud, thundering manner. Soon enough, a streaming column of bright, iridescent light cascaded down before us. Once the light had vanished, we saw a tall, muscular man with shoulder-length blond hair standing before us. That was Thor, Loki's foster brother and a fellow Avenger.

I stared at Thor in confusion, and then looked at the handsome, ivory skinned face of Loki, trying to see what his reaction was to his brother's sudden appearance. Loki's dark green eyes were narrowed in annoyance, "What are _you_ doing here?" he asked Thor, his distinctively low and accented voice sounding harsher than usual. I guessed that Loki still had a major grudge against Thor, some things never truly changed.

"You know why I'm here, brother," Thor replied in his deep, rumbling voice.

"Well, I don't!" I said, butting into the conversation, "What're you doing here, Goldilocks?"

Thor chuckled softly at me, half-heartedly, "Nice to see you again as well, Robin," and then the God of Thunder sighed, "I am afraid that I do not bring glad tidings to either of you."

I noticed Loki tense slightly beside me and I instinctively hooked my arm around his, "What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"Our father has demanded that Loki is taken back to Asgard to answer for his crimes properly."

"Your father," Loki corrected bitterly, "He was never my father."

"What?" I asked Thor, my voice filled with disbelief as I still thought I had heard him wrong, "Why? Didn't you tell him about the time that Loki actually helped us?"

"I did," Thor said, "But Odin neither believes it nor does he trust Loki to stay on Midgard any longer. He is set in his ways, especially since Loki had escaped from his sentencing earlier."

"I'm not going back," Loki said stubbornly.

"That is why it is not up to you," Thor said quietly, taking out a pair of shackles and clasping it around Loki's wrists. However, the shackles, and my arm, suddenly met empty air as Loki quickly vanished from that spot.

"Are you ever not going to fall for that?" Loki's voice said from behind Thor. I glanced around the tall Asgardian to see Loki smirking condescendingly at him.

Thor sighed heavily, "Do I look to be in a gaming mood, Loki? This is serious."

"Which is exactly why now is the perfect time for Robin and I to leave so we can continue our mischief."

"Hard to argue with that," I said with a grin, winking at Loki.

"Loki," Thor said a little impatiently, "If you do not leave now, father will only send more Asgardians to fetch you."

Loki rolled his eyes in irritation.

"Don't make this worse than it already has to be," Thor insisted.

Loki sighed and narrowed his eyes angrily, saying tightly through clenched teeth, "Fine."

Thor nodded briefly and then shackled Loki's wrists again, successfully this time. The chains were long enough that they only slightly restricted Loki's movements. Thor then looked skyward, "Heimdall, whenever you're ready," he called out.

"Wait!" I shouted, quickly dashing over to Loki's side again and meeting Thor's confused gaze, "You're taking me with you!"

"Robin," Thor said, "I do not think that-"

"Thor," I interrupted, "you and I both know how this song and dance goes. You insist on saying no, but then I argue all of the reasons on why you should say yes, then I threaten you and you agree with me anyway. It takes forever and we'll save more time if you just realize that I always win in these arguments."

Thor stared at me with a raised eyebrow, slightly irritated.

"Plus, I can give Loki a proper goodbye if you let me go with you guys," I added.

He sighed in frustration, "All right, all right! You can come with us!"

I grinned smugly at him, "I knew you'd come around."

I heard Loki's low chuckle behind me, and I let out a small squeak of surprise as he suddenly hooked me around the chain of his shackles and drew me close to his chest. I looked up at him, unable to help my slight giggling as my cheeks blushed. He smirked at me, "Truly, you are a blessing to this helpless realm, my dear agent of mischief." He leaned down and lightly kissed my forehead.

I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck, lightly teasing his shoulder length, raven black hair. "Well, I only learn from the best."

"Indeed you do," he said a tad smugly. I rolled my eyes jokingly at him before I felt his arms tighten around my waist as much as the shackles allowed him. He leaned in close to my face and whispered against my ear, "Hang onto me." The feel of his breath on my skin made me shiver softly and blush again, but I complied with his command and held onto his shoulders tightly.

Soon enough, the three of us were encased in a beam of colorful light, the beam pulsing with every hue of the rainbow. Before I knew it, we were rushing forward at incredible speed, the colors whizzing past us just as rapidly. The sensation was dizzying to my eyes and I ended up burying my head into Loki's broad chest to try and steady myself. And then, before I could even process the whole experience, the trip was over.

We landed in a large, golden, spherical room with intricate etchings on the walls. As we entered the room, I nearly fell over from the rush of being pushed into the chamber by the Bi-Frost, but Loki's grip on my waist kept me from tripping. I was still a little breath taken from the rush of the travel, surprised that I didn't get whiplash from the speed we were moving at. "So that's what that feels like," I breathed quietly.

Loki chuckled and smiled at me in amusement, "What did you think of it?"

I looked up at him and laughed softly, happily, "It was kinda . . . fun! A little weird, but fun!"

He laughed softly and pecked my cheek lightly, "You'll get used to it."

I then heard a new voice cut in, a voice much deeper than even Thor's voice, "Welcome to Asgard."

I turned around slightly, letting go of Loki and looking up to see a tall, dark-skinned man dressed in golden armor and bright, golden amber eyes. He smiled slightly at my reaction to seeing the gilded chamber we were in. My eyes were wide, and I probably looked like a gawking fool. Beside the golden eyed man stood a young woman with mocha colored skin, long, dark brown hair, and the same golden eye color. She also wore golden armor, but her attire was splashed with a deep blue color, most notably a cape draped around her shoulders.

I looked at the golden eyed man in slight confusion at his welcome. Why were they standing there? "Uh . . . thank you?" I replied uncertainly.

The man chuckled slightly at my reaction, "You must be Robin Rogers."

I widened my eyes a little more at his words, "Yeah, I am," I turned to Loki and whispered to him, "How the hell does he know my name?"

The God of Mischief smirked at me in slight amusement, "That man before you is named Heimdall, the Gatekeeper of the Bi-Frost. His eyes allow him to see most things in the universe. The woman beside him is his daughter, Katarina. She inherited his gifts of sight and will take over as Gatekeeper eventually."

I looked at Loki and then glanced at the pair standing before me, "I'll need evidence," I said skeptically, "If you really can see everything, you can tell me what my brother Steve Rogers is doing right now, can't you, Heimdall?"

Heimdall chuckled and looked out into space, literally, "Currently, he is trying to look for you. You had suddenly vanished from his sight and he is panicking."

"Typical Steve," I mumbled, and then smiled at the pair, "That's pretty cool," I said quietly, but then I widened my eyes in realization, "Wait, since they actually see everything," I looked at Loki with a slightly frightened expression, "did they see what we did last night?"

Loki laughed and shook his head, "They cannot see past my magic if I do not allow it," he said smugly.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Wait," Thor suddenly said, and I looked towards his direction, seeing his confused and wary expression, "What did you two do last night?"

Loki smirked mischievously and said, "Well, brother, allow me to explain." He cleared his throat dramatically, "You see, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they-"

"OKAY!" I said quickly, interrupting Loki as my face turned a bright red, "That's enough from you, mister!" I said to Loki, who laughed at my reaction and kissed me lightly on the lips. I still had a bright blush on my cheeks and shook my head, "I think it's time to change the subject here!" I said, and then looked to the girl named Katarina, "So, uh, hi. Guessing it's 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day'?"

"It's that way every day," she said, her voice having an accent similar to my Asgardian friends, but maybe a little sassier. Katarina looked at me with a slightly raised eyebrow, "You're the one who took an interest in Loki?"

I shrugged and nodded, "Hey, he's not as bad as everyone seems to think."

"He froze my dad in ice," she countered.

I stared at her in silence for a few moments before I turned to Loki, "Do you see what happens when I try to defend you? Do you see what happens?"

Loki shook his head slightly in amusement and pulled me closer to him by the waist. "In my defense," he said softly, "that had happened long before I met you."

I sighed and smiled slightly at him, "I suppose that's a little better," I said teasingly.

It was then that a small group of soldiers had entered the room. The troops were armed with swords and shields and they all were clad in golden armor similar to Heimdall's. Three of the soldiers carried more shackles with them for Loki, who I had noticed suddenly take on a more serious and solemn demeanor. One of the soldiers stepped forward and eyed me warily, obviously assuming I wasn't to be trusted because I was in Loki's arms. "Step away from the prisoner," the guard ordered.

Loki glared at the soldiers fiercely and begrudgingly let go of me as I lifted up the chain connecting his shackles and ducked under it. I hesitantly and sadly took a few steps away from Loki as the soldiers clasped a shackle around his waist, two more around his ankles, and a final one around his neck. All of the shackles connected together through a series of interconnecting chains that led out to two soldiers to keep a hold of him at a safe distance. They really wanted to keep him restrained. I walked past the soldiers and stopped beside Loki, ignoring their cautious glares as I gave him a tight hug that lasted a few seconds.

As I unwrapped my arms from him, he took one of my hands in his, bringing it up to his lips so that he could gently kiss the knuckles. He had to bend down a bit because of the restraints he was locked in. Then, when he stood up to his full, looming height, we shared one long, solemn look into each other's eyes before the soldiers ushered him out of the room and down the Rainbow Bridge.

I watched him leave before I turned around and saw Thor giving me a sympathetic smile. He then turned and addressed Heimdall, "I'd love to stay and chat," Thor said, "but I'm late for the battle in Vanaheim."

Heimdall chuckled softly at Thor's words and nodded, inserting his sword into a slot and activating the Bi-Frost. I guessed that Heimdall's weapon also acted as a giant key, which was actually a pretty interesting concept. When the Bi-Frost was activated, Thor smiled at Katarina, "I shall speak with you later, my friend."

The future Gatekeeper grinned at him, "You better!"

Just as Thor was about to leave, I spoke up, "Hey."

Thor looked back at me in slight confusion, "Yes?"

I smiled at him a little half-heartedly, "Do the Hulk proud and smash the shit out of everything, okay?"

He laughed softly, "I shall do my best." Then, he stepped through the portal and instantly vanished.

As Heimdall was deactivating the Bi-Frost, I looked to him, "Where are they taking Loki?"

"Currently they are taking him to the throne room to receive his sentencing," Heimdall said evenly.

"Okay," I said, and waved to him, "Bye!" I ran out of the spherical room and rushed down the Rainbow Bridge, trying to figure out where the throne room would possibly be. Obviously it would be in the palace, so once I found the castle, I'd be golden. It actually wasn't too hard trying to find out where the palace was, the route was straightforward and when I reached the end of the bridge, I saw a huge, beautiful palace gleaming with gold and standing tall before me. I had to stop and stare at it, completely awestruck by its magnificence and beauty. No wonder Loki wanted to rule Asgard so badly.

I walked up the stairs and entered the palace, and, with directions from a guard, eventually made it to a grand room with a throne at the far end. Sitting atop the throne was an elderly man with snow white hair and a beard just as pure. He wore black armor laced with gold plating and had a golden eye patch over his right eye. What was it with leaders and eye patches? The man sitting on the grand throne wielded a large, golden staff and had two black ravens resting on his shoulders. I assumed that the man seated there was Odin, the Allfather of Asgard, and I also assumed that he had a thing for gold. Literally everything was gold, golden columns, golden throne, golden armor. Seriously, King Midas had nothing on this guy.

I saw Loki standing before Odin and noticed that he was close to a woman with braided blond hair and elegant blue and silver armor. I smiled slightly as I saw my handsome God of Mischief, despite the seriousness of the situation, and headed towards that direction. I got there just as I caught the conversation between Loki and the older woman.

"Loki," the woman had said, looking at him desperately.

"Hello, mother," Loki said flatly, "Have I made you proud?"

"Please, don't make this worse," she pleaded softly.

"Define worse."

"Enough!" Odin's loud and clear voice rang in the room, "I will speak to the prisoner alone."

Loki's mother was about to leave the room before she spotted me standing behind Loki. She furrowed her brow slightly in confusion and Loki, noticing her expression, turned around to face me. He looked at me in surprise, "Robin, why are you here? I thought you went home."

"Hey, honey!" I said quietly, "I just figured that I should stick around for the whole thing before I go home. I'm probably gonna go wherever your mom is going. I wish you good luck and, uh," then I whispered in his ear, "know that I'll be eavesdropping on this whole conversation."

He chuckled slightly at that last part, "Oh, my dear, you are a delight."

I nodded and grinned, "I know!" I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, "I love you!"

He smiled at me, his expression solemn, "I love you, too," he said softly.

I waved goodbye to him and then followed his mother out of the throne room. As we made our exit, I decided to strike up conversation with her, considering that I should probably introduce myself to her since I was with her son. "Hi," I said, almost a little awkwardly, "I'm Robin Rogers, your son's girlfriend."

"So I've heard," she said with a small smile.

"News travels fast in Asgard, huh?"

"Undoubtedly so," she said, "I am Frigga, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise," I said, smiling slightly at her. As we exited the throne room and saw the large doors close behind us, I stayed behind and leaned my ear against the door, trying to listen in.

"What are you doing?" I heard Frigga ask. I looked up to see her questioning blue gaze.

"Just listening," I said softly.

She raised an eyebrow at me.

"Don't tell me you're not in the least bit curious as to what's going on in there," I said, unable to stop myself from grinning mischievously at her.

She stared at me for a few moments in silence before she shook her head in amusement, "I can see why my son has taken an interest in you," she chuckled and smiled, "Carry on."

I grinned, "Thanks! You're awesome!"

She laughed softly as she walked away, and I turned my attention back to the door, pressing my ear against the surface of it and listening carefully. I heard the clang of shackles crashing together before Loki's deep laughter reached my ears. "I really don't see what all the fuss is about," Loki said.

"Do you not truly feel the gravity of your crimes?" Odin asked, "Wherever you go there is war, ruin, and death."

_Not all the time!_ I thought indignantly.

"And what of the last attack?" Loki questioned, "I seem to recall defending Midgard that time, not destroying it."

"Were it not for you, that would not have happened in the first place," Odin countered bitterly.

"I went down to Midgard to rule the people of Earth as a benevolent god. Just like you."

"We are not gods. We are born, we live, we die. Just as humans do."

"Give or take five thousand years," Loki said snidely.

_What does that make me, then?_ I couldn't help but ask myself silently. Was I human? I had already lived past the average human's life span while still looking to be only in my late twenties. Whatever I was, I couldn't be human.

"All this because Loki wanted a throne," Odin said, his voice sounding like ice.

"It is my birthright!" Loki argued.

"Your birthright," Odin shouted, putting emphasis on birthright, "was to die!" His voice then softened to an indoor voice, but his tone still remained venomous, "As a child. Cast out onto a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, you would not be here now to hate me."

"If I'm meant for the axe then, for mercy's sake, just swing it. It's not that I don't love our little talks, it's just . . . I don't love them," Loki replied snidely.

"Frigga is the only reason you're still alive, and you'll never see her again. You'll also never see that woman you claim to love ever again, and to ensure that, I am severing your telepathic connection with her."

I widened my eyes in pure shock, "WHAT?!" I shouted, unable to hide my anger or suppress my outburst, "Oh, that's bullshit!"

The throne room suddenly went silent and I gasped quietly, clasping my hands over my mouth. They had heard me. "Come out from there," I heard Odin demand.

"Oh fuck," I cursed under my breath before I pushed the door open and walked into the room, stopping beside Loki and raising my head up high at Odin.

"Eavesdropping on us, are you?" Odin accused me.

"In my defense," I said, "I feel like listening in here was perfectly justified considering just who this conversation concerns! And while I'm at it, I'm pretty sure you can't sever our connection considering how it was formed."

"Then I will do everything in my power to suppress it," Odin replied flatly.

I stared at him in dismay, "You can't just-!"

"I can and I will," Odin interrupted me. He then addressed Loki with a sharp glare, "You'll spend the rest of your days in the dungeon."

"And what of Thor?" Loki asked bitterly, obviously as pissed as I was, "You'll make that witless oaf King while I rot in chains?"

"Thor must strive to undo the damage you've done. He'll bring order to the nine realms and then, yes, he will be King."

I watched hopelessly as the guards began to lead Loki away. The God of Mischief looked back at me and gave me one final long, saddened look before he had to face forward as they ushered him to the dungeons. I watched Loki until he had vanished completely from my sight. My attention snapped back to Odin when he addressed me, "You have overstayed your welcome, mortal," the Allfather said, "I did not throw you out earlier merely because of your reason to be here. That reason is no longer present. I expect to never see you in this realm again." He then raised his voice, "Guards!"

Two guards stepped forward and bowed their heads to him.

"Escort her out of Asgard," Odin ordered. One of the guards stepped forward and gripped my arm tightly, ready to drag me out of the palace if he had to.

"I can escort myself!" I snapped, wrenching my arm from the guard's grip roughly. I glared venomously at Odin before I turned on my heel and stormed out of the palace.

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**Oh! And one last thing that I almost forgot to mention!**

**Katarina is an OC that one of my good friends made, and she specifically asked me if I could use her in my story here, so I have full permission to use her as a character in this fanfiction.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wooo! An update and it hasn't been a week yet! XD I'm gonna try to be better updating wise so that I don't leave anybody hanging for like half a year again. Guilty is charged! Enjoy!**

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A week or so had passed since the day Odin had imprisoned Loki, and I was rendered extremely distraught. I had started out biding my time earlier by cursing the Allfather and taking out my frustrations by training, but I quickly got tired and elected to eat ice cream and chocolate instead. My fellow teammates were just sitting there at the kitchen table a tad awkwardly, watching me eat all of the sweets at my house. Steve had told the others of my predicament and they all decided to visit me to see how I was holding up. Needless to say, none of them were expert sympathizers.

My brother Steve sighed and patted my shoulder as I sat there and moped, "You'll be fine, Robin," he said, his blue eyes full of sympathy as he tried to sound reassuring, "It'll be over before you know it."

"Five thousand years," I muttered.

"What?" Steve asked.

"Five thousand years, it's gonna last five fucking thousand years. A life sentence for him. So no, it'll _not_ be over before I know it!" I said louder, looking up at the muscled, blond haired man known as Steve Rogers.

"I say good riddance," another man butted in.

I turned to face the voice, seeing another short haired blond guy with a stoic expression on his face. That was Clint Barton. I really wasn't very close to him at all, mainly because he didn't really trust me that much. I stared at him with narrowed eyes, "What?"

"Just saying, he's not the best choice, Robin, especially not as someone you'd want to spend your life with."

"Well, what do you know?" I asked bitterly.

"He took over my brain for a while, Robin! I know more than I want to!" Clint argued, "I _still_ hear voices in my head, telling me to do crazy things!"

"Oh, wah-wah," I said snidely, "You'll get over it, bird brain!"

"Robin!" Steve chided softly, "I know you're upset, but don't take it out on everyone else."

"I do what I want!" I responded.

"What Clint's trying to say," a more feminine voice cut in, "Is that you shouldn't wallow away in chocolate all the time."

"Why not?" I asked, looking to a woman with short, curly red hair. That woman was Natasha Romanoff, she used to be a closer friend to me and we often sparred together, but recent events between Loki and I had driven Natasha away from me. She was pissed over something that Loki did to her, but she never told me what it was, exactly. "Chocolate is good," I finished.

"You'll have to move on eventually. There are others out there."

"Not like him," I argued, "In all my ninety years of living I haven't met a single person who was as amazingly devious as he was. Besides, everyone else is a bunch of morons and I'm not taking relationship advice from someone who hates my choice for a boyfriend and wouldn't know love if it punched her right in the face."

Natasha rolled her eyes and was about to respond, but someone else cut in.

"Whoa, whoa, hold the phone," yet another voice said, obviously surprised, "You're _ninety?!_ How is your uterus still functioning?!"

At that, everyone else, including myself, looked at him in total, unfiltered shock. "TONY!" we shouted in unison.

"What?" the dark haired millionaire named Tony Stark asked innocently, "It's a legitimate question!"

Bruce Banner, a shorter man with curly brown hair and a slightly wary demeanor, looked at Tony pointedly and elbowed him roughly in the side.

"Ow!" Tony said, flinching slightly and looking at Bruce, "What was that for?"

"You don't just _ask_ that, Tony," Bruce said quietly.

I stared at the millionaire, completely and totally flabbergasted, "I-I don't know!" I said, my voice a higher pitch due to my shock, "Just- Let's just change the subject now, okay?"

"Agreed," Steve said, shooting Tony a fierce glare.

"As I was going to say," Natasha said, "You can still move on. It's not like your relationship with Loki was that serious, right?"

I looked at her and smiled half-heartedly.

She raised an eyebrow, "Right?" she repeated.

I couldn't help my nervous laugh, "Yeah . . . right. . ."

Steve looked at me with slightly wide eyes, "Robin," he asked hesitantly, his tone more serious, "did you two . . . fondue?"

Everyone else looked at him in utter confusion, obviously not understanding his question at all or why it seemed to be so serious to him. "Fondue's just cheese and bread," Tony said, his eyebrow raised.

Steve rolled his eyes and looked at me, "She knows what I mean when I say fondue!"

"Why do we even use that as a term?" I asked innocently, looking at Steve with a puzzled expression.

"Just answer the question," he said.

"Yes! We went fonduing!" I responded in exasperation.

My brother let out a heavy sigh, "Oh, God. . ."

I scratched the back of my head bashfully and laughed nervously, "Yeah . . . I said that a lot."

"Robin!" he exclaimed in shock.

I grinned a little impishly and giggled, "He said that a few times!"

"I don't wanna hear it!"

"Sorry!" I apologized with a small laugh before glancing around at everyone else, seeing their eyes widen into realization and understanding after my few comments on the matter. All of their expressions were pretty much the same, mixtures of surprised and weirded out faces.

"That's what Capsicle meant when he said fondue?" Tony asked, looking at me with dark, wide eyes. I gave him a nod and the man whistled softly, "Damn."

I waited for a few moments, gaging everyone's overall reaction before I shook my head, placing my hands on my hips as I grumbled, "Look, it's not like that was unexpected or anything, you all knew this was coming!"

"Yeah, someone was," Tony muttered under his breath.

I slapped the palm of my hand against my forehead, "Oh my God, Tin Can, shut up!"

"Make me!"

I faced him and glared at him fiercely, "Bitch, I will burn off your face!"

"Robin!" Steve chided me sternly, "I thought I told you to stop threatening people!"

"Well, maybe I wouldn't if the man who could keep me calm wasn't in fucking space jail for eternity!" I replied angrily, and then clenched my fists, "I'm tired, good night!" I said quickly before storming away from the group of people and towards my room.

"But . . . it's only afternoon," Bruce said softly.

"Whatever!" I growled before I reached my room and slammed my door shut behind me. I gripped my hair angrily and plopped down onto my bed, trying to sit there in silence and calm myself down. I lay down on my back and stared at the ceiling, my rage slowly ebbing away until nothing but sadness remained. As I sat there, I draped my arm over my closed eyes, ashamed that I felt tears threatening to leak from the corners. I didn't even understand fully why I was starting to cry, I was more along the lines of enraged than anything else. And then I heard a soft knocking at my door. "Go away," I grumbled.

I heard the door open and I sighed. No one seemed to listen to me at all. "I said go away!" I repeated, not even looking up to see if they had heard me.

"Not yet," I heard the familiar voice of my brother say, and I heard his faint footsteps cross my room and stop beside my bed.

I looked up and saw him seated at my bedside, my eyes narrowed at him, "What do you want?" I asked irritably.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," he said, looking at me gently, "We were all trying to get you to move on so that you could be happier, I guess we pushed it a little too far. Not to mention, I kinda put you on the spot back there, and I'm sorry about that. What you do in your private life, whether I approve of it or not, is your business, especially since you're an adult now."

I looked at him, slightly surprised, "Captain Bossy's apologizing?"

He smiled slightly, "Yes, I'm apologizing," he responded, "I just keep forgetting that you're all grown up. I still see you as that tiny little eight year old I had taken in ages ago. I don't want you to get hurt, that's all, and maybe I overdo it when I try to protect you. But what do you expect? I worry, you know?"

The tears that wanted to leak out earlier from my eyes slowly trickled down my cheeks as my gaze softened, "Steve. . ."

"But I'm not just here to apologize," Steve continued, not quite noticing the expression on my face, "I'm worried about you, Robin. Lately you've been acting a little strange, stranger than usual, anyway. I don't know if anyone else noticed it, but you've been a whole lot moodier lately, and I just wanna know if that's because of the problem with Loki or because something else is going on or if you're sick or something. . ." he trailed off as he glanced at me, his gaze suddenly becoming even more concerned, "Hey . . . are you crying?"

I stared at him and sat up, defiantly wiping the incriminating drops from my eyes, "No!" I argued, "I'm not! I'm just sweating through my eyes!"

"Oh, Robin," he said gently, wrapping his arms around me in a reassuring hug, cradling my head against his chest in a brotherly fashion as more tears unwillingly leaked from my eyes. I was too exhausted to push him away or do anything else about it. "It'll be all right," he continued, his voice still calm and soft, "We're all here for you, and we'll help you cheer up, okay? Maybe Odin will change his mind about Loki's sentence."

"You're hoping that that wouldn't happen," I muttered disdainfully, sniffling slightly and cringing as I did so, "Same as everyone except me, so why tell me otherwise?"

Steve let out a heavy sigh, "I'll be honest with you, sis," he said, "I don't trust Loki, not fully, anyway. And I don't understand your relationship with him, or approve of your choice. But it's obvious that he means a lot to you, and I try to respect that and get used to it. I just want you to be happy, and if he makes you happy, then so be it. I'll live." He then added a bit jokingly, "Unless one of his pranks gives me a heart attack."

I looked up at my brother, giving him a weak smile in response to his joke before I looked away again, staring at the floor beneath us.

"And you can at least visit him in prison, right?" he asked, "So it's not like you'll never see him again, right?"

I scrunched my face up slightly and looked up at Steve with a guilty expression, "Yeah . . . uh, about that. . ."

He furrowed his eyebrows slightly in concern, "What is it?"

"I kinda got into an argument with Odin and . . . he, uh, kinda . . . maybe . . . sorta banished me from Asgard . . . forever."

"Oh dear lord. . ."

"What? He made me mad and was being a total jackass, so I retaliated!"

"How long were you even on Asgard? Ten, twenty minutes? And you already managed to get yourself kicked out?" Steve shook his head slightly, "That's a new record."

"Oh, shut up!" I said, moving away from Steve's hold slightly so I could look him in the eye, "You would've done the same thing!"

"Uh, no I wouldn't have."

"Yes, you would've!"

"No, no I don't think so."

I sighed and gave up, "Whatever, you don't know what the argument was even about."

"What was it about?" Steve asked.

"Odin told Loki that he would sever our connection with each other, I overheard it and barged in to try and convince him otherwise. Didn't work out very well," I said, "Odin's a stubborn, obstinate bastard set in his ways and I couldn't reason with him. I already hate him."

"He can do that?"

"No, but he can suppress it enough so that I can't talk to Loki."

"Oh," my brother replied quietly, deep in thought, "Well, at least you won't be constantly distracted by Loki all of the time like you used to be, right?"

"But I loved hearing his voice all the time," I protested, "It's beautiful!"

"You'd still get super distracted though. Your face always turned red when I assume he was talking to you mentally. What does he even say to you to get that reaction?"

I looked at Steve and giggled shyly, "Ehh . . . you don't wanna know."

"Well, now I'm curious, so I actually do."

"Trust me," I said, looking into his eyes seriously, "You _don't_ wanna know."

Steve sighed and dropped the discussion for the moment, "Well, all arguments aside, I'm pretty sure your opinion of Odin is tainted by Loki's opinion of him," he said, "I mean, you've only ever heard what Loki said to you about him, and I can't imagine any of that would be in good light."

"Well, he's right about Odin!" I argued, "That guy's crazy if he thinks that he can just sentence my man for five thousand years and get away with it lightly!"

"And you're probably mad that Odin suppressed your connection," my brother continued, trying to reason with me on my negative opinions.

"A stupid decision on his part," I grumbled, crossing my arms indignantly.

"Thor's only ever said good things about Odin," he said, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"That's because of extreme amounts of favoritism!" I argued, "He was the favorite son out of the two so of _course_ he would be saying good things about the dumbass!"

"Isn't Odin supposed to be wise?"

"Well, he's not!"

"What makes you say that?" Steve asked, his expression was full of curiosity.

"He thought it was a good idea to piss me off!"

Steve shook his head in amusement, laughing slightly at my response and resting a hand on my shoulder, "Robin, I'm just saying that your anger towards him may be just a little irrational."

"I'm not irrational!" I growled, shaking a fist angrily.

He obviously wasn't convinced, "Sure you aren't." He stood up and looked at me, "I'm gonna head back downstairs to talk with the others. You wanna come with or do you wanna be alone?"

"I'll stay up here," I said quietly, stifling a yawn, "I actually am pretty tired."

"Okay. Try to cheer up, okay? I don't want you to sit around and be upset all of the time. Lemme know if you need anything," Steve said as he began to exit the room.

I nodded, "Okay," I said quietly, and then watched him leave before I laid back down, resting under the comforters of my bed, closing my eyes, and trying to relax myself so that I could sleep. It was difficult, especially for the first few minutes because for once in a long while, I didn't have the reassuring feeling of being in the hold of the man I loved. I sighed, my mind wandering back to my conversation with Steve, about how he said my anger towards Odin was irrational. Was it really? I considered the question for a few moments and everything I had experienced when talking with Odin, and then I shook my head. Nah, it totally wasn't irrational. It was actually perfectly rational, in my eyes. Of course, after a while, I wasn't able to concentrate on my thoughts as I became drowsier and slipped off into a deep, slightly fretful sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Finally got this third chapter up! It took a little longer than expected, but that's mostly because I had to figure out how to make a lot of the things going on in this chapter make sense with the actual movie version. Hopefully I did a good enough job! Enjoy!**

* * *

I awoke in the morning by the sound of a harsh knocking on my door. I mumbled in irritation and rolled over onto my side, facing away from the door and trying to ignore the knocking. However, I didn't stay in that position for too long as I started to feel a little sick and I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. As the knocking persisted and became more insistent, I became increasingly annoyed with both myself and whoever was trying and succeeding to wake me up. "Open up, Robin!" I heard a muffled voice say through the door.

I rolled my eyes and huffed, "Door's unlocked, open it yourself!" The door clicked open and I saw Natasha step through, she was watching me with an expectant expression. I glared at her, "What're you still doing here?" I asked irritably, "Didn't you go home like everyone else? Lemme guess, you're here to try and set me up on a blind date or something? I'm not interested!"

"Nothing like that," she said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, right, like I believe that," I said, feeling inexplicable amounts of rage at her presence, whether the reason for it was because her current, annoyingly professional demeanor irked me or because she woke me up, I couldn't discern. I grabbed one of my pillows and flung it at her, trying to get her to leave in my bout of anger.

She gave me a completely and totally unamused expression after she dodged the projectile, her blue eyes shooting daggers at me, "I'm telling the truth here."

"Then it better be fucking important," I snapped, "because you interrupted a really good dream!"

"Fury needs you."

"For what?" I asked angrily, crossing my arms indignantly, "I don't work for him!"

"For now, you do," Natasha said, "He's downstairs, I suggest you talk to him for the debriefing."

"Why can't you do the job?" I asked.

"Clint and I are needed elsewhere," she responded cryptically, "Talk to Fury," she repeated before turning around on her heel and leaving the room.

"Spies," I scoffed as I rolled my eyes, "All business and no fun, can't believe I wanted to be one as a kid." I stood up and got myself dressed before I headed downstairs to the kitchen, seeing my brother Steve sitting at the table. Beside him was a tall, dark-skinned man adorned in completely black clothes and a matching eye patch over one eye. Other than those two and Natasha, the house was completely empty. Everyone else had gone back to their respective homes. I took a seat in front of the eye patched man, who I knew as Director Nick Fury of a government organization called SHIELD. "So, what's this about?" I asked with a raised eyebrow as I addressed Fury.

"We got word from our operatives that there have been strange happenings in London," Fury replied in an even tone, "We need someone to check it out."

"What kind of 'strange happenings'?" I asked.

"We're not sure, can't get close enough to find out."

"Well, why are you telling me to do this?" I asked skeptically, "Can't your operatives do it?"

"That's the problem, they can't do it. We recently discovered Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis in London," Fury said, and then he placed two pictures on the table in front of me. Both images were of young, brunette women, but one had brown eyes and the other had blue eyes. They looked to be about the same age. "They work with Dr. Eric Selvig," Fury explained, "You know Selvig, right?"

"Yeah," I responded, studying the two images, "He was directly involved with the first Chitauri Invasion when Loki put him under his mind control. How's he doing?" I asked that last question mainly because I had remembered that Clint claimed he kept hearing voices telling him to do crazy things. Clint could handle the psychological pressure because he was a trained spy, Selvig was just an astrophysicist and probably wasn't as strong-willed as Clint was.

"We haven't seen much of him," Fury admitted, "but if Jane and Darcy are there, Eric must be, too. No doubt they're researching the strange findings, which means that my agents can't get anywhere close to any possible sites or Jane'll spot them a mile away. She doesn't exactly trust us."

"Gee, I wonder why," I grumbled under my breath. Fury gave me a hard look at that comment, but I ignored it. "Why do you care if she spots your agents?" I asked him, "That never stopped you from getting directly involved before."

"If we get involved in Jane's research like last time, there's not a doubt in my mind that Thor will interfere with us, which will only hinder the mission all together."

"Right, makes sense," I said quietly.

"But you're not a SHIELD Agent," he said, giving me a pointed look.

"So you want me to do your dirty work?"

"Look, I'm not asking you to do this because I want to, I'm asking you because I need to." Fury sighed, "If it were up to me, I'd give this mission to someone more reliable, but you're the only Avenger here that didn't get screen time in New York during the invasion."

"Mainly because she was out cold for half of it," Steve added softly.

"That wasn't my fault!" I protested.

"We need you on this," Fury said, effectively stopping any possible sibling argument that could've emerged.

I glanced at Fury and then looked to my brother Steve, "You're okay with this?" I asked in slight disbelief.

"Fury already gave me the details," Steve explained, "I'm not a big fan of SHIELD, but the mission seems fairly harmless. Besides, it'll be good for you to get out and do something other than sit at home and eat ice cream."

"Speaking of which," I said at the mention of food, "I'm starving. Ice cream really sounds good."

Steve let out a heavy sigh at my comment.

"We just need you to check it out and see if it's dangerous or not," Fury said, "There haven't really been any signs of people noticing it, so I doubt the anomaly is actually an issue, we just want to be sure."

"Well . . . I don't know," I said hesitantly, not really wanting to do any kind of work for SHIELD.

"You'll be paid to do it," he said.

That comment instantly got my attention, and I looked at Fury alertly. "How much?"

"A fair sum."

"Lemme think about it," I replied cryptically.

"The trip is all expenses paid," he added.

I raised my eyebrows, the prospect of a free, seemingly easy mission that would probably end up becoming a vacation for me sounded really promising. Too promising for me to resist. "Thinking's over, count me in!"

"Good. I suggest you start packing now, we're giving you a week to do this. We'll take you to the airport when you're ready."

"The airport?" I asked, slightly dismayed, "We're not taking a private jet?"

"It'll be cheaper if we don't. Here's the mission details," Fury said, handing a file over to me, "You can read it on the plane. You got an updated passport?"

I took the file in my hands and sighed, "Yeah."

"Then start getting ready. I'm assuming you won't need weapons, so don't bring any unless you want to be stopped by security."

"I know, I know," I grumbled, getting up and heading upstairs to go pack.

"And be careful about your identity," he added, "You have to be at least a little discreet."

"No duh. Good thing I have a really, really generic name," I said irritably before I reached my room and closed the door a little too harshly. For some reason, being dragged into SHIELD business annoyed me greatly. Probably because I didn't like being bossed around by other people. I emerged from my room after I finished backing my suitcase and put my favorite books in my carry on, which mostly consisted of mystery and horror novels. Fury led me to his tricked out, black SUV. Steve insisted upon going to the airport with us so that we could say a proper farewell to each other.

Once we reached the airport, Fury stopped me before we entered the building and handed me a ticket and a wad of cash. "This should be enough for food expenses," he said, indicating the money, "I expect to get any change back."

I snickered softly, "I make no promises."

He rolled his eye and continued, "We already booked a hotel room for you and got everything in order."

I looked at the man skeptically, "You already knew I was gonna accept, didn't you?"

Fury smiled a little slyly and chuckled, "I know you, Robin. You can't refuse money and free travel bundled into one."

"That is terrifying that you know that," I said flatly.

"One last thing," Fury said before he turned to leave, "don't do anything stupid." He entered his car again before I could protest about his comment.

"I'll walk you to the security line," I heard my brother say beside me. I nodded and we entered the airport. After I had gotten everything figured out with the luggage and everything else, Steve and I started heading towards the line for security checks. I felt my stomach growl as we passed a small café in the airport and I quickly swiped an untouched bagel from the nearest table. I happily munched on it as Steve started to begin his classic 'mommy lecture'. "I hope you have a least a little fun there," he said, not really paying attention to what I was doing, "But be careful. There could be all sorts of trouble in London, and I know how trouble seems to love you. I want you to promise me that if you run into any problems, you come home as soon as possible, okay?"

"Ophay," I said through a mouthful of bread.

It was then that Steve noticed the bagel. He looked at me with a puzzled expression, "When did you get that?"

I swallowed the food in my mouth before answering, "Found it."

"Robin," he said with a disappointed sigh. By now, he knew that when I said found, I really meant stole.

"What? I was hungry and didn't get to have breakfast this morning! And it's not like anyone else in the café was eating it!"

"You need to stop stealing things."

"It's a bagel, nobody's gonna miss it!"

"Back on topic," he said with a sigh, "be careful. Don't get into trouble, and try not to get yourself kicked out of England, okay?"

"I won't get kicked out," I protested.

"I'm being serious, here!"

"As am I," I replied, "I'll be careful." We soon reached the security check and I turned to Steve, "Try not to get too bored without me, okay?"

"I'll try," he said with a small smile before he ruffled my hair, "See ya when you get back."

I promptly smoothed out my hair and smiled, "Yeah, see ya later, Steve!" I got into line and waved goodbye to him, and then I devoured the rest of my bagel as Steve turned and left the airport. I passed through security without any problems and after I boarded the plan, I sat in my seat and looked into the file Fury had handed to me. He had pretty much told me everything that was in the file, it only held a little more detail and had pictures. I studied the images and tried to devise a plan. I had to find a believable way to get close to whatever he wanted me to research. Maybe I could convince either Darcy or Jane to let me tag along. Either way, I saw lots of lying in my future. I smiled slightly; the mission shouldn't be too difficult for me.

I arrived in London late at night, rendered completely and totally exhausted. After I trudged to my hotel room and at least somewhat unpacked, I ordered a pizza for myself and managed to eat the whole thing. I looked around the room briefly. It was pretty much like any hotel room I could imagine. It was a room with a fancy, semi-comfortable bed with beige comforters, tons of unnecessary pillows, and an ornate, carpeted floor. There were a few chairs around a small table and a TV opposite of the bed. I wandered to the large window leading out to a small balcony and I looked outside into the city below.

Obviously I wouldn't find either Darcy or Jane today; they were probably asleep. I decided to try and take a few more moments to think over the mission assigned to me. It seemed simple enough, and I already knew what Darcy and Jane looked like. Maybe I'd finish the whole job in two days or so, that'd make me easy money and then I could spend the rest of the time here causing mischief. I smiled slightly at the idea of it and retired to the bed for the evening.

* * *

I awoke in the morning a little groggy, but not as tired as I had been the day I arrived, mainly because I had slept until close to noon. After getting dressed, I headed to the lobby and grabbed a quick meal before heading out into the city. I made my way towards the area where Jane and Darcy had last been seen, and I staked out the area. I took a seat on a nearby bench and kept an eye out for any familiar faces. I pretended to look busy on my phone, but kept an eye on the sidewalk discreetly.

After a few moments, I overheard an interesting conversation between a small, brunette woman and a tall man with short hair. I watched them carefully, trying to see if I could recognize the woman as they talked. I calculated them and thought about what to do.

"You seem to meet all of the qualifications," the woman said, but then looked at the man skeptically, "but do you have what it takes to be my intern?" She had an obvious American accent, which meant that she was likely to be one of the two people I was looking for.

"I should hope so!" the man replied, having a native, English accent, "It would be a huge honor to work with you and Dr. Foster. I'm a big fan of your work."

When I heard a 'Dr. Foster' being mentioned, I instantly paid more attention to the conversation.

"Yeah, yeah, that's good," she said dismissively, "but do you know how to do science?"

"Yeah, I do," he said.

At this point, I pocketed my phone and made my way over to them calmly, knowing exactly what I was going to do.

"Good," the woman who I assumed was Darcy said, "'Cause I need you to look at some stuff for me. You're officially my intern!"

"Oh! Thank you so much!" the man said.

"Unpaid, though!" Darcy added.

"Oh. . ." his expression of sheer joy faltered slightly at the prospect of not being paid for anything.

"I'm sorry," I said, putting on an innocent demeanor, "I couldn't help but overhear that you're looking for an intern?"

"Well, yeah," Darcy said, turning to face me, "but I- Whoa! You have scars on your face!" She widened her eyes slightly in either amazement or surprise.

I looked at her with furrowed brows, annoyed at her sudden outburst. "Yes, very observant of you," I said irritably. I did have two scars on my face, one across my nose and one on my cheek, but they were old by now. Apparently the scars were still a little noticeable. "But back on topic-"

"How'd you get them?" she interrupted.

I rolled my eyes slightly, angry that she'd even ask such a thing. I really didn't like talking about my scars. I took a deep breath and calmed down a little, "That's not important, back on topic," I repeated, "You see, I'm studying to be an astrophysicist, and getting an internship with a prestigious group of scientists would really help me with learning the field better."

"That's great," she said, "but I already have an intern."

"Yeah," I said, persisting in my conversation, "but you know what's better than one unpaid intern? Two unpaid interns. More people to boss around and force to get coffee," I reasoned. I had to get her to agree with me, or else it would be a whole lot harder for me to get the mission done.

Darcy's eyes lit up at my reasoning and grinned, "Oooh! You're right! I like the way ya think. You can be Intern Number two!"

I gave her a smile of feigned gratitude, "Thank you!"

The man smiled at my success and chuckled slightly, "I'm Ian, nice to meet you." He extended a hand forward for me to shake.

I ignored the outstretched hand, not being one for formal gestures, and caused him to withdraw his hand awkwardly. "Robin," I responded.

"And I'm Darcy," Darcy cut in, "Now that that's over with, I got some stuff that I need you to look at. We need extra brains on this! Right this way, people!" She strode forward towards a bright red car with Ian following behind her. I hung back a little, unable to help the successful smirk on my face. That had been way too easy, and now I had just ensured my access to the anomalies and a surefire way to find them.

I sat in one of the back seats of the car after I caught up with everyone, and Darcy started up the vehicle. I jerked to the side suddenly as the woman took a sharp turn. "Ow!" I hissed as my head banged against the car window a little hard.

"Sorry!" she apologized.

_Damn! She's a worse driver than I am! _I thought disdainfully as I searched for an anchor to hold onto. After a few painful minutes of Darcy's horrible driving, we pulled into a driveway and she parked the car.

As we got out of the vehicle and made it to the door of a small house the driveway belonged to, Darcy turned to Ian and I, "Here's our lab-slash-Jane's mom's house. Now, before we go in, I should warn you, Jane's been a little," she paused for a few moments, "well . . . you'll see." She opened the door and stepped inside. I shared a confused glance with Ian before we followed Darcy inside. "Jane!" Darcy called, looking around, "I brought extra help!"

I glanced around at the room slowly, looking at all of the scientific equipment spread out on a lot of desks. I recognized a few of them thanks to knowing Bruce and Tony, but most of the equipment I couldn't even figure out the use of. I picked up a small piece of equipment and looked at the screen, seeing it flash and flicker rapidly in a bunch of different, pulsating patterns.

"Where is she?" I heard Darcy ask in irritation, stopping beside me, "Whatcha got there?"

I handed the little gray box over to her and shrugged, "I don't know what the hell it's doing."

She stared at the screen with furrowed brows, "Looks like it's malfunctioning." She then promptly banged the equipment on the table a few times and looked at it again. "That didn't work," she said, and then turned to Ian and I, "Got any ideas?"

He and I shook our heads.

Darcy sighed, "I bet Jane knows how to fix it, but where is she?" She looked around again before stopping her search suddenly, staring in a specific direction. I followed her line of sight and saw a small piece of paper taped to a wall near the entrance. "Ooh! A note," Darcy said, crossing the room and picking it up, scanning the words quickly. She then turned to face us, "Okay, back to the car!"

"But we just got here," Ian said, his expression filled with confusion.

"Yeah, and Jane's not here," Darcy explained, "but I know where she's at, so come on!"

"More driving?" I asked in dismay, not looking forward to another insane session of Darcy's driving skills.

"Yep! It'll be fun!" she insisted before exiting the building with Ian following behind. I groaned, wondering just exactly what I was getting myself into before following the duo. Now I started to understand why Tony never wanted me to drive his convertible. If my driving was anything like Darcy's, I didn't blame him. Horrible drivers were just downright terrifying.


	4. Chapter 4

**Well! Finally got this one finished! Sorry, this chapter was long overdue, but now that my cousins are done visiting, I can spend more time writing.**

**XD I kinda postponed typing this up to write another drafted chapter before the final version. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this update!**

* * *

I sat in the back seat of the car, feeling crowded with both Ian and a few pieces of scientific equipment that Darcy insisted upon us bringing. I barely had any room to move, and even then I could only move my arms _slightly_. Apparently the passenger seat was reserved for Jane. I didn't argue, mainly because I didn't want to blow my cover accidentally. Ian was studying the small, gray gadget that had been supposedly malfunctioning. The screen was still acting strangely. "Hmm," Ian mused quietly.

"What?" I asked him, looking at his concentrated expression.

"I'm just wondering . . . what if it's not actually malfunctioning?" he asked, "These look like they could be readings."

"You mean like the readings Eric was rambling about?" Darcy asked, overhearing the conversation as she was driving.

"I don't know what those readings look like," Ian replied, "but it's possible that these might be it."

"Maybe," Darcy said, starting to slow the vehicle down.

"And I think I might know where the readings are coming from," he said.

"Great!" she replied, pulling the car over to the curb and parking it beside a large and rather fancy looking restaurant. "You're currently in the lead for favorite intern! Get us there when I grab Jane, okay?"

"Okay," Ian said, looking surprised at the 'favorite intern' part.

Darcy exited the car and looked at us, "Stay here, I'll be back soon." And then she left for the restaurant without a second glance back. Ian nodded and continued to study the gadget, leaving me to sit there and do nothing.

I sighed in slight irritation and stared out of the car window nearest to me silently. Waiting around was boring as hell, but I had to be complacent for now. I spent the time thinking about all of the better things I could be doing. I could be walking around, making random people's lives miserable for the hell of it. And it had been a while since my last prank raid; it could be a refreshing return.

My mind couldn't help but wander to Loki as I was left to my thoughts, since mischief-making always reminded me of him. What was he up to right now? The god was probably bored out of his mind, what with being in prison and all. Then I widened my eyes as a horrible thought entered my mind. What if he was dead? What if Odin actually executed him like he obviously wanted to? I shook my head slightly, trying to disperse the thought, that couldn't be true. I remembered hearing that Frigga was the only reason Odin spared Loki in the first place, so as long as Frigga was still there, Loki couldn't be dead, right? I closed my eyes for a moment, hating my rather vivid and wild imagination. If only I could still speak to Loki, then I could see how he was doing or see if he was okay. Damn that Odin!

"Uh . . . are you all right?" I heard Ian ask.

I snapped my eyes open, slightly confused at his question and a little disoriented after my deep thoughts. I met Ian's concerned gaze, and I finally noticed that I was clenching my fists so tightly that they were shaking and the knuckles were white. "Yeah," I said quietly, relaxing my hands, "I'm fine. . ."

"Okay, just making sure," he replied.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Don't you have readings to locate?"

"Already did it."

"Ah," I said quietly, now staring at the back of the seat in front of me.

We sat there in awkward silence for a few moments before he spoke again, "So, uh, where ya from, Robin?"

"New York," I said simply.

"Oh!" he responded, sounding a little surprised, "Where you there for that alien invasion?"

I tensed slightly, but tried to remain relaxed. I had to be careful when talking about that. "Yeah," I said finally, "Crazy stuff, that was. How'd you know about it?"

"Everyone knows about it. It was all over the news. Not every day that an alien army attacks, you know? What was it like, if you don't mind my asking?"

I thought for a few moments and shrugged, "Really chaotic. I don't really remember too many details, I evacuated as quickly as I could. I've never seen so much destruction before that," I responded softly, trying to be as convincing as possible. I guess Fury was right, no one really caught me helping to fight off the Chitauri.

"Wow," Ian said with wide eyes, "Good thing they caught the guy that started it, right?"

I sighed heavily, "Yeah. . ."

"You sound disappointed," he said, looking at me with slight confusion.

I turned to him and smirked slightly, "Well . . . he _was_ kinda cute."

"You think the guy that tried to take over the world is cute?" I could see the absolutely shocked expression on Ian's face.

"Yep, call me crazy, but I do!"

"You're crazy."

"I know!" I said with a small laugh. And then I couldn't help my crestfallen expression when I heard no exotic voice giving a snarky response to my compliment towards the God of Mischief. Damn. I really missed him.

". . . Are you sure you're okay?" Ian asked, noticing my expression.

"Yeah! I'm fine!" I said a little too quickly, and then I looked over to the sidewalk to try and dissolve the conversation and avoid his gaze, thankfully, I noticed the familiar face of Darcy heading down the sidewalk towards the car. Perfect, a distraction. "Look, there's Darcy!" I said. I then noticed that she was alone and raised my eyebrow. She got in the driver's seat and I looked at her in confusion, "Where's Jane?" I asked.

"Give it a few," she replied, smirking softly.

Soon enough, as if on cue, another short, brunette woman headed towards the car, matching the picture that Fury had shown me of Jane Foster. As the woman approached, she began talking to Darcy, "And I hate you," she said, opening the passenger door and sitting down. She obviously didn't notice Ian and I in the back seats.

"What?" Darcy asked innocently, "I thought he was cute!"

_Ah, so Darcy interrupted a date,_ I thought to myself.

"Just shut up and drive," Jane replied in exasperation.

Then, Ian suddenly butted in, "Take the next left," he said, looking at the GPS on his phone.

Jane jumped in slight surprise and turned around, staring at us with wide, brown eyes. "Who're they?"

"They're my interns," Darcy replied proudly.

"You have interns?" Jane asked incredulously, looking at Darcy with a puzzled expression.

"Oh, yeah."

"Hello, Dr. Foster," Ian said, looking almost a little nervous, "It's a . . . it's a great honor to be working with ya."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes slightly, _Geez, this guy fangirls like Agent Coulson did over my brother._

"Right," Jane said slowly, looking perplexed at the entire situation, "I have to call Eric." She took out her phone and began to dial a number.

Ian glanced down at the GPS, "Oop, take a right!"

Darcy instantly and harshly steered the car in compliance to Ian's direction. The sudden turn jerked me to the side and caused me to bang my head against the window, "Ow!" I growled, "Goddammit, Darcy!"

"Sorry!" she apologized.

"Left!" Ian exclaimed amid the chaos.

Darcy swerved the car again, taking us down a different street. "I have totally mastered driving in London," she said proudly.

"This is not mastered!" I argued, "This is suicide!"

"Psh! You're just jealous of my driving skills!"

"What driving skills are present?!"

"Shh!" Jane interrupted our small argument as she held her phone against her ear. After a few moments of silence, she began speaking into it, "Hi, Eric, it's me again. Where are you? I came here because you said you were on to something, and then you vanished." She sighed in frustration and hung up the phone.

"No answer?" Darcy asked.

"None at all," Jane said.

We soon arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned, industrial facility. The lot was practically empty, save for a cement truck and a few metal semi-trailers oddly arranged in a Stonehenge-like fashion. As we all stepped out of the car, I couldn't help but give the odd arrangement a confused glance. Someone obviously had way too much time on their hands in order to do something like that. "Come on, this is exciting!" Darcy said, interrupting my thoughts with her boisterous voice, "Look, the Intern is excited!"

"Ian," Ian corrected.

"Do you want the phase meter?" Darcy asked Jane.

"No," Jane replied flatly.

Darcy looked over to Ian and I and threw the car keys at Ian, "Bring the phase meter," she ordered, "It's the toaster looking thing."

"I know what the phase meter is," Ian muttered.

"Great! Then you should have no problems bringing it," I said with a smirk on my face. I then strode forward, easily catching up with Darcy. Being with Loki, a man who was at least a foot taller than me, made me learn the essential skill of speed walking. Ian followed behind us, carrying a large, silver box that did indeed look like a toaster with both of his hands. The little gadget that held the readings was resting atop the phase meter.

Darcy glanced back at Ian, "Where do the readings take us?"

Ian glanced at the small box, "Uh, towards that building ahead of us."

I looked up and spotted at a large factory, noting the crumbling walls and the lovely amount of weeds surrounding the exterior. I raised an eyebrow at the sight, "That looks safe," I said sarcastically.

"I'll call Jane," Darcy said, taking out her phone. I furrowed my brow in confusion as I suddenly heard a loud, rap song fill the still air.

"How do I change the ringtone on this thing?" I heard Jane ask loudly in frustration. The song suddenly stopped as I assumed that she had answered her phone.

"An astrophysicist with three degrees should be able to change her own ringtone," Darcy said snidely into her phone.

"Why are you calling me?" I heard Jane's voice ask, clear through the speaker of Darcy's phone.

"Didn't wanna shout. Intern says it's this way."

"Ian. My name's Ian," Ian corrected quietly as we followed Darcy and Jane into the abandoned factory. I glanced around the interior, seeing the cracked walls and trash littered everywhere. Dead leaves hid in the corners and dust was everywhere. Birds that were probably nesting fluttered at our disturbance as we went further into the factory. And then the sound of running footsteps echoed throughout the area. I instantly got into my defensive stance, fighting my urge to summon the comfort of my flames.

"I'm not getting stabbed in the name of science," Darcy grumbled, and then shouted as she raised her hand in surrender, "It's okay, we're Americans!"

"Is that supposed to make them like us?" Jane asked in a hushed tone.

It was then that three little children stepped out from behind a screen hanging over the entrance to a larger room. The children eyed us warily and fearfully. I relaxed my position and heard Jane let out a sigh of relief, "Ah, they're just kids," she said.

A little girl with black hair looked at us with wide eyes, "Are you the police?"

I laughed softly and shook my head, "No, no of course not, sweetie," I said reassuringly, reminded slightly of myself as a child when looking at her, "I'd make a terrible cop, trust me," I added with a smile. I ignored the slightly confused glances from Ian and Darcy. The little girl giggled slightly at that and smiled, seemingly reassured by my friendlier demeanor.

"We're scientists," Jane added, "Well . . . I am."

"Thanks," Darcy grumbled a little irritably.

"We just found it," one of the boys in the little group of children said.

"Will you show us?" Jane asked gently.

The three children nodded after a few moments and went further into the abandoned building with us following behind them. They eventually stopped beside a cement truck, and one of the boys went up to it, pushing it into the air with a single finger. I heard Jane gasp as the truck rotated in the air, floating as if it didn't have gravity weighing it down. I raised an eyebrow at it. So this was the anomaly. I studied it carefully, surprised by how odd and spontaneous the sight was. It didn't really seem all that harmful.

"That doesn't seem right," Darcy said, interrupting my thoughts.

I looked at her in a bit of irritation, _No shit, Sherlock,_ I thought.

The little girl then motioned for us to follow the group again, leading us up a nearby stairwell and then stopping our ascent about halfway up the red, metal stairs. One of the kids took an old bottle and dropped it over the railing, letting it fall down towards the ground. I watched it fall, and then widening my eyes as it suddenly vanished into thin air. I looked up at the kids in complete confusion. Something wasn't right with the world. I had seen weird things before, but nothing like what was happening now.

"Where'd it go?" I heard Jane ask the children. The young girl pointed upwards, and soon enough, the old bottle appeared out of nowhere above us and fell through what I could only assume to be invisible portals again. On its third or fourth round through the portals, one of the boys caught the bottle and looked at us with an eager expression.

"That's . . . that's incredible," Jane breathed, her eyes filled with amazement. She then took a soda can and dropped it over the edge, watching it disappear. Then, she looked upwards expectantly, but I noticed her expression falter when the can didn't return. "Where'd it go?" she asked hesitantly.

_Well done, you broke it,_ I couldn't help but think with a small snicker.

"Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't," the little girl replied with a shrug.

"I wanna throw something!" Darcy said suddenly, "Jane, gimme your shoe."

Jane paid no attention to Darcy as a faint and frantic beeping was heard. I looked to the direction of the noise, my eyes resting on the gray box that led us here in the first place. Jane picked up the little gadget and studied the screen, "I haven't seen readings like this since . . . since. . ."

"New Mexico?" Darcy asked with a small smirk.

Jane looked at Darcy with wide eyes, and then suddenly ran up the next flight of stairs, "Don't touch anything!" she shouted as she left.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion at her reaction and looked to Darcy, "What happened in New Mexico?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Darcy replied.

I crossed my arms defiantly, "Try me."

"Later," she said dismissively, resulting in an irritated huff from me. She looked to Ian, "Gimme your shoe."

"No way!" Ian responded.

"Gimme your shoe," Darcy said to me.

I raised an eyebrow at her, "I'd rather not."

She sighed slightly and shrugged, "Oh well, I'll find something else." Soon enough, she managed to find a lot of trash and other things to throw in. I watched with a bit of disinterest, already having all of the information I needed and wondering why I was hanging around any longer. No, I had to stay a little longer, there could be a chance of more anomalies spread elsewhere here. I rested my hand on my chin as Darcy and the kids threw more items in and laughed as they did. I sighed in boredom, but my attention was soon turned to something else as I felt a slight tugging on my black jacket sleeve.

I looked down and saw the little girl looking up at me, "Are you okay?" she asked.

I was silent for a few moments and then smiled at her to try and be reassuring, "Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired. It's been a long day."

"Do you need a nap?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.

I laughed softly, "Maybe," I looked at her and ruffled her hair gently, "You don't need to worry about me, sweetie."

The young girl immediately smoothed out her hair, much like what I would do whenever any of my friends ruffled my hair. "Do you wanna throw something?" she asked me, holding up an empty box.

"Nah, you can do it."

"You should throw it in! It's fun!" she insisted, handing the box to me.

I rolled my eyes slightly and gave in, tossing the box off of the stairs and into the portal. I watched return at the top and fall into the bottom portal again. My expression twitched into one of amusement, and I couldn't help but giggle slightly, "That's actually kinda fun," I said, smiling at the little girl.

"See?" she said happily.

"All right, you're right," I said, feeling a little more lighthearted and laughing softly. "You can go back to your friends now, you don't have to stay with me."

"Okay!" the little girl said, going to join her friends again, but stopping and looking up at me, "You look scary, but you're nice!" And then she skipped over to her friends.

I furrowed my brow in confusion, glancing at Darcy and Ian. "I'm _nice_?" I asked dubiously, "How am I _nice_? I don't understand this, agh!" Darcy looked at me and shrugged. Ian was busy throwing something that jingled slightly into the portal. We all looked up to see if the item returned. Whatever it was, it decided to not come back.

Darcy looked worried, "Were those the . . . car keys?" Ian's face slowly transitioned from a mirthful smile to a horrified grimace.

The sight of his expression made me laugh a bit at what he had done, "Dumbass," I murmured quietly.

"Great," Darcy said, "Now how are we gonna get home?"

"Worse comes to worse, we take the bus or walk," I said with a shrug.

Darcy glared at Ian slightly who smiled apologetically in return. I merely sighed and took a seat at one of the steps and rested my chin in my hands, glad to be sitting down. Climbing up all of those stairs had made me feel a little tired. Maybe Natasha was right, maybe eating all of that chocolate earlier was starting to put me out of shape. But how could I help myself? I seemed to be hungry all the time, and it annoyed me when I wasn't near any food, kinda like how it was currently like being in an abandoned factory. Closing my eyes, I managed to doze off sitting that way for God knows how long. I only woke up disoriented when I felt someone shaking me urgently. I looked bleary-eyed up at the face of Darcy, "Huh?" I mumbled. It was just Ian, Darcy, and I on the stairwell. The kids must've left.

"Stop sleeping and help me find Jane!" she said, her eyes wide.

"Jane'll come back when she's done doing whatever the fuck she's doing," I replied, a little more awake and annoyed at the situation now that I was slightly rested.

"She's been gone for hours!" Darcy cried, obviously distressed at the disappearance of her friend, "I can't find her anywhere! She's missing!"


	5. Chapter 5

**All right! Here's the next chapter to the story. I'm hoping to get as much writing done as I can before I have to busy myself with Marching Band. However, even then I'll still try and find time to continue writing this, so no worries! **

**I planned on having this typed up much earlier today, but I got distracted by accidentally arting and focusing on drawing Loki instead. *hangs head in shame XD* Anyway, enjoy this next update! **

* * *

We had spent the next half an hour or so searching the factory, trying to figure out where Jane had vanished to. So far, there was no luck in finding her. Darcy resorted to calling the police and then waiting outside for their arrival. There wasn't much else to do while waiting for the police, so I explored the strange little Stonehenge-like area in the empty lot, still curious as to why it was placed there in the first place. Did the people make the arrangement merely to re-create Stonehenge in a modern way, or what? I placed my hands on my hips. All that work put into something that seemed extremely pointless to me made it look ridiculous. Humans were so weird. My attention went elsewhere as I suddenly heard sirens and I decided to go out and see what was happening. I spotted Darcy talking to one of the cops, and when I went towards them, Jane did as well.

"Jane!" Darcy called when she spotted her, "Where the hell were you?!"

"Tell me you didn't call the police," Jane said angrily.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" Darcy asked.

"Not call the police?"

"I've been freaking out!"

"You call the cops, they call the Feds. Next thing you know, we have SHIELD crawling all over the area as if they're running the place."

I couldn't help but snicker slightly at that. _Oops, too late!_ I thought with a small smirk. SHIELD was already way ahead of these two.

Darcy looked extremely frustrated, "Jane-!"

"We had a stable gravitational anomaly!" Jane interrupted, "We had unimpeded access! Our only competition was ten years old!"

"Jane!" Darcy shouted, "You were gone for five hours!"

"What?" Jane asked, obviously confused at that statement. Did she not realize the passing time? Was that due to yet another anomaly? I suddenly heard it pouring down rain, but none of the three of us were getting wet.

"That's weird," Darcy said, both her and Jane noticing it as well.

"Okay, this planet's getting really fucked up," I said, my brow furrowed in confusion.

"Agreed," Darcy said.

Jane held up her hand to try and see if she could feel rain, and then looked around in confusion before stopping suddenly, her gaze widening. Darcy and I turned to see what she was staring at, and what I saw made me stop dead in my tracks. Standing a little bit away from us, close to the weird arrangement of semi-trailers, was the all too familiar, muscled figure of Thor. I paled slightly at the sight. _Shit! _I thought, _What the hell is he doing here? He'll blow my cover!_

As I was trying to keep calm and make sure that Thor couldn't recognize me, Jane approached him, leaving Darcy and I with an instant slap of pouring rain that instantly soaked us. Darcy flinched from the sudden rain, "Typical," she said.

I huffed my displeasure and crossed my arms, "Thanks a lot, Goldilocks," I grumbled under my breath. Darcy and I watched as Jane approached Thor, and then as soon as she reached him, she slapped him across the face. I snickered slightly at both the action and Thor's confused look. My giggle turned into full out laughter when she smacked him again. Loki would certainly get a kick out of that. When I recovered from my laughing, I widened my eyes as I remembered that Thor could potentially blow my cover.

"Hey, you okay, Intern?" I heard Darcy ask, obviously noticing my slightly worried expression.

I rolled my eyes slightly, "First of all, it's Robin, not Intern, 'kay? And I'm fine. I just didn't expect to see a superhero show up today."

"He's a close friend of ours," Darcy said proudly.

"Yeah, he's my friend, too," I mumbled under my breath in annoyance.

"You wanna meet him?" Darcy asked me suddenly.

"What? No! I don't!"

"Why not?" she asked, confused by my response.

I paused and stared at her, "I'm . . . shy. Painfully shy."

"Sure you are," she replied, her tone giving away the fact that she obviously wasn't convinced by my words. "That settles it, you're meeting him." She started pushing me towards Thor.

"What?! No! No, no, no, no, no!" I protested, trying to escape the situation, but unable to due to Darcy's persistence.

"Oh, stop whining!" She said, pushing me again, "It'll be fun!"

"No, it won't!" I argued, flailing in resistance.

"You're so negative! Just say hi!" She pushed me one final time, sending me stumbling towards the pair with Darcy following behind.

I managed to steady myself and I glared at Darcy furiously, "I hate you!" I snapped.

"You'll thank me later," she said with a grin, and then addressed Thor before I could protest, "Hey! Is this you?" she asked, indicating the downpour of rain. Thor looked at us with a confused blue gaze, and the rain instantly stopped.

"Uh, we're kinda in the middle of something here," Jane said.

"Um, I'm pretty sure we are getting arrested," Darcy replied.

Jane glanced to Thor, "Hold that thought," she said before she strode away towards the police.

Darcy grinned at Thor and poked him, "Look at you, still all muscly and everything. How's space?"

Thor looked amused, "Space is fine," he then looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Robin, what are you doing here? And where is your brother?"

I sighed in frustration, "I'm on vacation, Goldilocks. And, despite what you and everyone else thinks, I'm an adult and can vacation by myself."

"Wait, you know my intern?" Darcy asked Thor with a baffled expression.

"How could I not?" he said, "We fought together during the Chitauri Invasion. Wait, she is your intern?"

"Yeah, she's my intern. Wait," Darcy turned to me, "You fought that alien army?"

I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms, giving Thor a shitty grin, "Thanks a lot, Thor." I sighed, my cover was blown, there really wasn't any use hiding who I really was, though I still wouldn't mention being here on behalf of SHIELD. "Yes," I said to Darcy, "I did. I'm an Avenger, like Thor here."

"Wait, you're an Avenger?" she asked, "How?"

I held up one of my hands and lit it on fire, causing Darcy to jump back slightly in shock. Smirking slightly, I extinguished my flame and showed her the lack of burns on my hand. "Holy shit!" she said, an awestruck expression on her face.

"That and I'm Captain America's sister," I added.

"But you don't look anything like him," she replied, looking a little confused.

"She's adopted," Thor answered before I could say a harsher response.

"Then why did you want to be my intern?" Darcy asked me.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later," I said, and then added with a sly smirk, "_If_ you tell me what happened in New Mexico before I tell you."

She looked at me and then sighed, "All right. Deal."

Suddenly, a large blast erupted from nearby, knocking everyone back except Thor, Darcy, and I, but only because the God of Thunder had shielded us from the red explosion. He then ran towards Jane, who was lying on the ground with a dazed expression. I followed behind him. "Jane! Jane! Are you all right?" he asked her as he helped the confused woman to her feet.

"What just happened?" she asked groggily.

The police surrounded us in a large circle, obviously afraid to approach us. "Place your hands on your heads, step back!" one of the officers said.

"This woman is unwell," Thor reasoned.

"She's dangerous," the policeman countered.

"So am I," Thor said.

"I am too!" I butted in with an amused grin, "We should start a club!"

The policeman started speaking into a radio clipped to his jacket, "Requesting armed response officers to the scene!"

Thor pulled Jane close and spoke softly, "Hold on."

"What're you doing?" Jane asked in confusion.

I widened my eyes, knowing what was going to happen next, and I gripped Thor's arm. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, and I narrowed my eyes in defiance. "You're taking me with you whether you like it or not," I said quickly, "Let's go!" Thor sighed and looked up at the sky, the familiar cascade of iridescent light soon surrounding the three of us and shooting us forward in its dizzying fashion. After a few quick moments, we suddenly landed in the golden, spherical room, a room that I never thought to be so happy to see again. I almost tripped as we landed, much like last time, but steadied myself on Thor's arm.

"We have to do that again!" Jane said, obviously breath taken by the whole experience. She then turned around and saw Heimdall and Katarina, faltering slightly at their appearance much like I did the first time I had arrived. "Hi," Jane said quietly.

"Welcome to Asgard," Heimdall said with a smile.

"Thanks," Jane said softly, seeming to be slightly intimidated by him.

"And welcome back, Robin," Heimdall said to me, "I did not expect to see you here again."

"Welcome back?" Jane asked.

"What? You thought you were special being the first human to set foot on Asgard?" Katarina asked with a raised eyebrow, "I am sorry, but Robin has beaten you by at least a week."

I ignored the small little conversation between Katarina and Jane, and I answered Heimdall, "Yeah, well, I wanted to see how my lovely man was doing," I said with a small smile.

"I assume that simply telling you the answer would not satisfy you?" he asked.

"You would assume correctly!"

"I thought Odin had banished you," Katarina said, furrowing her brow in puzzlement.

"Technically speaking, he didn't! He said, and I quote," I then cleared my throat and tried to impersonate Odin. Needless to say, I was failing at it miserably, "'I expect to never see you in this realm again'," I then reverted to my normal voice, "Which, as far as I'm concerned, had absolutely nothing to do with banishments or even a forbidding. He only didn't _expect_ me to return, so, ha! The joke is on him!"

"You twist words much like Loki," Heimdall mused.

"I suppose that is to be expected," Thor spoke up, shrugging slightly.

"Well, of course!" I said with a smirk, and then turned to Thor with narrowed eyes, "And you!" I said angrily, slapping him in the back of the head, "You blew my cover!"

Thor looked at me in confusion, "I did not realize you were trying to hide."

"I just wanted a stress-free vacation and you show up!" I grumbled, placing my hands on my hips.

"My apologies?"

"Yeah, you better be sorry!"

"Um," I heard Jane speak up softly, "Sorry to butt into your argument, but, why are we here, Thor?"

Thor turned to Jane, "I brought you here to see Asgard's physicians. Perhaps they can discern what your illness is," he answered her, "We should probably depart to see them, now."

"Okay, bye!" I said, "You two kids have fun!"

Thor looked at me with narrowed eyes, "What? You are coming with us."

I widened my eyes, "What? But . . . but I have a sexy God of Mischief to visit," I protested, my expression similar to that of a heartbroken child.

"I do not trust you to wander in Asgard alone," Thor countered.

I feigned a hurt expression, placing a hand on my chest to further my dismay, "You don't trust me? You don't trust your friend? Stab me in the heart, why don't you!"

"No, I do not trust you," he responded, "You'll blow something up if left unsupervised!"

"But," I said, pouting slightly, "I just wanna talk to Loki. . ."

"Which shall shortly turn into you getting revenge on everyone in Asgard for locking him up in the first place." Thor met my sad gaze and raised an eyebrow, "I know you, Robin. You _will_ do that."

I sighed in frustration and defeat, "Fine, let's go."

Thor nodded and led us out of the spherical room and towards the palace. I looked down at the Rainbow Bridge we were walking on, mesmerized by both the wide array of colors, and the fact that it seemed to glow wherever we walked on it. My attention was taken away from the colorful bridge when Jane addressed me, "Isn't Loki the one who attacked New York?" she asked me, looking confused.

"Yep!" I said, unable to help my grin, "I love that sexy asshole!"

"Are you insane?" she asked, a horrified expression on her face.

I narrowed my eyes slightly, giving her a glare as I grumbled, "Everyone's a critic." I subtly flipped her off in my anger before we reached the golden palace of Asgard. Thor led us deeper into the castle, taking us to a large room where a group of women in silver-gray robes approached us curiously. Thor explained the situation to the people who I assumed were the physicians, and Jane was promptly set on the large table in the middle of the room with a strange, golden energy field surrounding her.

Jane looked at the energy curiously, "What's that?" she asked.

"Be still," the head healer ordered her as she studied the field, her hands working at some sort of holographic control system. This all reminded me way too much of Tony and all his fancy technology.

I was standing beside Thor during this time, and overheard his low conversation with one of the other healers, "This is not of Earth," he said, "What is it?"

"We do not know," the healer admitted, "But she will not survive the amount of energy surging within her." The healer then left Thor's side awkwardly.

"Well, that's unfortunate," I said softly.

Thor just nodded slightly, remaining silent as he watched the healers do their job. Jane was just lying there, still curious about the whole energy field, "That's a quantum field generator, isn't it?" she asked.

"It's a Soul Forge," the healer corrected.

"Does a Soul Forge transfer molecular energy from one place to another?"

The healer paused and looked at Jane with an impressed expression, "Yes."

Jane glanced at Thor and I triumphantly, "Quantum field generator," she whispered. Thor smiled softly and I rolled my eyes in very slight amusement, still a little angry that she called me insane. But my expression quickly turned foul when an all too familiar voice echoed in the room.

"My words are mere noises to you that you ignore them completely?"

Thor turned to face his father, Odin. The mere appearance of the man instantly brought me into a horrible mood. "She is ill," Thor argued.

"She is mortal," Odin responded, "Illness is their defining trait. Just ask your other companion, she seems to have an illness of the mind."

I instantly glared at Odin, fuming with anger as I knew that he was referring to me being insane, "Excuse me?" I asked angrily, "How about you say that to my face, bitch!"

Odin immediately turned to face me angrily, "What did you call me?"

"You heard me! Oh, and by the way, I bring you a gift! Hang on, it's in my pocket," I then proceeded to pretend to look for something in my black pocket farthest from him, "Found it! It's a big old pile of 'go fuck yourself'!" I brought my hand out dramatically and flipped him off as I said the last part.

Thor looked at me with wide eyes and quickly moved my outstretched arm down with one of his hands, "Robin. . ."

Odin narrowed his eye at me furiously, "I have half a mind to smite you where you stand."

I crossed my arms, "And I have half a mind to kick you in the nutsack! Maybe then you'd learn some respect. But I highly doubt that, seeing as you can't even respect one of your own sons!"

"Robin!" Thor shouted.

"What?!" I snapped at him. He gave me a wide-eyed look and shook his head in warning.

"Do you even know with whom you are speaking to?" Odin asked bitterly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I know perfectly well," I said irritably, "Doesn't mean I have to like you, and it definitely doesn't mean that you get a pass to be a gigantic jackass!"

"I thought I told you to never return," he responded.

"Ah, no," I argued, "that's a bunch of lying bullshit and you know it! You said you didn't _expect_ me to return. I merely decided to not meet your expectations."

"I should throw you in the dungeons," he snarled.

I smirked, "Oh, really? Well, if you do, throw me in the same cell as Loki, 'kay?" I rolled my eyes, "But, oh, that's right, I'm here on behalf of the safety and concern of my planet. I came here to meet on peaceful grounds, but I will not stand for people so easily disrespecting me and assuming things of me that are clearly wrong.

"But if you do throw me in the dungeons, consider this little fact. I'm here because a bunch of fucked up shit is happening at home, at a planet that has no quarrel with you, and you're depriving it of answers. You imprison me or do whatever the hell you plan on doing, and you piss off a planet with a stubborn and ferocious population of _seven billion _living beings. I don't think you wanna do that. So, ha! Suck on that big, thick-" I was quickly interrupted by the sound of Thor clearing his throat obnoxiously loudly. I glanced at him and met his warning glare, and then I looked back at Odin, ". . . popsicle stick," I finished finally.

Odin stared at me furiously for a few moments of tense silence before looking at Thor accusingly, "Why did you bring them here?"

"I brought them here so we can help her," Thor said, indicating a terrified looking Jane lying on the table. Actually, most of the people in the room looked terrified at the fact that I argued so heatedly with Odin. "Please, father," Thor begged, "forgive Robin's behavior. She is just very on edge."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" I said snidely, my mind losing its filter in my bitter rage, "Most people don't like being accused of having a mental illness that they clearly don't have!" I glared at Odin, "That was uncalled for!"

"And telling my father to, as you so eloquently put it, 'go fuck himself', was not?" Thor asked me under his breath.

I stared at Thor in silence for a few moments, realizing in my mind that he was right, but to infuriated and stubborn to actually admit it. ". . . Shut up," I muttered.

He sighed and placed his head in the palm of his hand, "I am seriously regretting bringing you here, Robin."

Odin ignored our small conversation and looked at Jane and I, "They do not belong here anymore than a goat belongs at a banquet table." Obviously he was so pissed at me that he didn't want to address me directly. Typical bastard.

Jane sat up, appalled by Odin's disrespect towards her and looked at Thor in disbelief, "Did he just. . . ?" She turned to Odin angrily, "Who do you think you are?"

Odin addressed her matter-of-factly, "I am Odin. King of Asgard. Protector of the Nine Realms."

"Well, la di da for you," I grumbled under my breath, "why don't you just flaunt around your fucking prize?" I flinched as Thor suddenly elbowed me roughly in the side, "Ow!" I hissed, muffling my voice and glaring at him. He gave me a pointed look that practically said 'behave'. I looked at him with narrowed eyes and elbowed him roughly back, only to wince again as a sharp pain shot up my arm. "Agh!" I grimaced through clenched teeth, "Completely forgot you were wearing armor." I cradled my throbbing elbow in my other hand and finally decided to be smart and shut up.

Jane seemed to falter at Odin's flaunting of his titles, "Oh," she said quietly, "Well I'm-"

"I know very well who you are, Jane Foster," Odin interrupted.

Jane looked over at Thor in amazement, "You told your dad about me?"

Thor nodded slightly, sighing in relief as he heard no snarky comment from me, and went to address Odin, "Something's within her, father. Something I have not seen."

"Her world has its healers, they're called doctors, let them deal with it," Odin said dismissively, "Guards! Take her and her disrespectful friend back to Midgard!"

I watched as a few guards quickly entered the room at the Allfather's command. Two of them approached me, ready to grab me and drag me out of Asgard. I raised a hand and lit it on fire, glaring at the two fiercely, "You touch me, you die," I hissed menacingly. The pair of guards faltered slightly, obviously surprised that I could summon fire so casually.

A couple more guards marched forward and went to apprehend Jane, but Thor stepped forward to intervene, "No, I wouldn't-" He was interrupted as the guards were blasted away by some mysterious, red force. ". . . touch her," Thor finished, "Jane, are you all right?" The woman in question merely looked dazed yet again. Apparently the blasts were effecting her, too.

Odin approached her and ran a hand lightly over her arm. I leaned over and watched the whole thing curiously, seeing something red glowing and flowing under her skin. "It's impossible," Odin said.

"The infection, it's defending her?" one of the healers asked, obviously perplexed.

"No," Thor said bitterly, "It's defending itself."

Odin stood up to his full height and looked at us all with a sweeping gaze that commanded attention. "Come with me."

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**Now, I know what you're asking, "Is it really that smart to be purposely picking a fight with the Allfather of a land of gods?"**

**No, no it is not. XD But Robin cares not about that, she's just really angry at him. She, after all, does like to do what she wants.**


	6. Chapter 6

**All right! Finally finished this one! :D I'm sorry for the delay for this chapter, this month has gotten a lot busier with both my puppy and Marching Season starting up pretty soon. Hopefully I'll get some time to write more, but until then, updates will be fairly slow for a bit, at least until my dog gets out of her puppy stages. XD**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy this next update! :D**

* * *

Odin led us down the long, gilded hallway outside of the physician's room. Before I had gone to follow after the Allfather, Thor had briefly stopped me, gripping my shoulder like Steve would always do to keep me from moving. Thor scolded me for arguing with Odin without any form of respect towards the King of Asgard. Apparently I had gotten off easy when I argued with the King, but Thor, as my friend, had feared that next time if I pulled a stunt like earlier, I would be truly and thoroughly punished. He didn't want me to get hurt or to get into serious trouble, and he swore that if I did cause another ruckus, he'd drag me out of his realm personally. The God of Thunder wouldn't release his grip on my shoulder until I swore to try and behave for my own sake. One Thor was satisfied with my answer, we strode forward to catch up with Odin and Jane, and then we all continued together through the elegant corridor.

Soon enough, the Allfather led us to a gigantic, cavernous chamber, filled with mysterious relics resting on protected pedestals. In the center of the huge room stood a tall, looming tree, its branches reaching to even the farthest corners of the room. The tree easily shadowed any tree I had ever seen in my long existence. But the sheer size and height of the tree wasn't what had awed me. Each main point of the tree held glowing, swirling spheres of light, and each luminescent point held a different color. Counting the spheres, I could see nine concentrated areas of light. I stared up at the tree with a gaping, awestruck expression as we walked through the gigantic room. It was something that I had never seen before, yet I knew what it was. "Is that Yggdrasil?" I asked Thor in a hushed tone.

"Yes," he replied softly, "Loki told you about it, did he?"

I nodded slightly, an almost invisible movement, "You guys weren't kidding when you said it was the World Tree, huh?" I whispered.

Thor laughed softly, "No, I suppose we were not."

I finally managed to tear my eyes off of Yggdrasil as we passed by it and entered another room. This new area was slightly smaller, but the walls were laced with huge bookshelves filled to the brim with books, tomes, and scrolls of varying sizes and ages. Each piece of furniture in the room was carved in traditional, Scandinavian engravings. Tapestries decorated the areas of the walls that were devoid of books and in the far end of the room stood a table with a lone, ancient book resting atop it. A stained glass window behind the area illuminated the book. Odin led us to the table with the ancient book.

"There are relics that predate the universe itself," he explained, "What lies within Jane appears to be one of them. The Nine Realms are not eternal, they had a dawn, as they will have a dusk. But before that dawn, the dark forces, the Dark Elves, reigned absolute and unchallenged." He then carefully opened the lone book, revealing a page with beautiful, gilded illustrations. As I gazed upon the pages, I could've sworn that the pictures moved and glowed, as if they were alive.

Thor leaned over his father's shoulder and read one of the pages, "'Born of eternal night, the Dark Elves come to steal away the light.'" He looked up at Odin, "These were the stories mother told to us as children."

Odin nodded, "Their leader, Malekith, made a weapon out of that darkness. It was the Aether. While the other relics often appear as stones, the Aether is fluid and ever changing. It changes matter into dark matter, and seeks out host bodies, drawing strength from their life force. Malekith sought to use the Aether's power to return the universe to one of darkness."

I glanced at the page, watching as illustrated strands of golden light slowly transitioned into a color as black as the void above the hands of a pale, ominous figure that I could only assume to be a Dark Elf. The picture seemed to respond to Odin's words, his story. I was intrigued by the look and feel of it all.

"But," Odin continued proudly, "After eternities of bloodshed, my father, Bor, finally triumphed, ushering in a peace that lasted thousands of years." The Allfather slowly swept his hand over the enchanted book for emphasis.

"What happened?" Jane asked softly.

"He killed them all," he responded flatly.

"Are you certain?" Thor asked, "The Aether was said to have been destroyed with them, and yet here it is."

"The Dark Elves are dead," Odin said stubbornly.

I stared at Odin with slightly narrowed eyes, trying my hardest to hold myself back. Yet, as I dwelled upon his stubborn attitude, I couldn't help but feel the incessant urge to tell him just how wrong he really was. I clenched my teeth to try and bite back my sharp words, but I couldn't stop myself. "Actually," I said, unable to keep myself from butting into the conversation, "Goldilocks here has a point. Personally, I think completely ruling out the possibility of the Dark Elves surviving is kinda ignorant."

Odin raised an eyebrow at me, "Did you not understand a single word I had uttered?"

"I understood you perfectly," I countered, my mouth working without a filter, "I mean, yeah, your dad killed off an entire race, whoop di fucking doo and shit. But he might have missed a few."

"You try my patience, mortal."

"And yet, just last week you were saying to Loki that Asgardians live just like humans," I said, crossing my arms over my chest stubbornly, "But, as soon as a human shows up for a very important matter, you belittle them and try to make them feel inferior to you. Now, I don't know about you, but," I paused for a few moments to take in an exaggerated sniff of the air surrounding us, "I detect a strong smell of hypocrisy in here. Gee, I wonder where the source of it is." I looked at Odin pointedly.

"Robin," Thor said sternly, a warning laced in his tone.

"Hang on, Thor, I'm not done yet," I interrupted him, my wrath forming more arguments to the arrogant Allfather. "You should know, Odin, that as king your first duty is to protect the citizens of your kingdom. Completely and totally dismissing a possible tangible threat is not only stupid, but could end up hurting a lot of people if you happen to be wrong. Do you really want your stupid ass pride to kill people?"

"Robin," Thor repeated harshly.

Odin glared at me and crossed his arms angrily, "I will not take advice on how to run my kingdom from someone who knows nothing of rule and was foolish enough to choose a Jotun as a partner."

I furrowed my brow and tilted my head to the side slightly, "A Yodawhatta?"

"A Frost Giant."

"What the hell do Frost Giants have to do with any of this?" I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

"He did not tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?"

Odin gave me a snide smile, "Hmm, perhaps the man you claim to love has not been as honest with you as you had assumed."

I narrowed my eyes at him and snarled, "This has nothing to do with our conversation! I'm not gonna just sit here and listen to your lies, so fuck off about that shit! We're talking about the safety and concern of your people, but you don't seem to wanna listen to me!"

"Of course I do not, you are the least trustworthy being in this room. Asgard is well protected, but you are seemingly blind to that fact."

"Uh, guys?" Jane asked timidly.

"You're only pissed off because I'm the only one here with the guts to stand up to you!" I growled, my eyes burning with rage, ignoring Jane in my anger.

"Is that what you call it?" Odin raised an eyebrow, "I would call it blatant disrespect. You would do well to silence yourself now before your words become the end of you, mortal."

"Oh no! You did _not_ just threaten me! I'm the one who does the threatening around here, bitch! I'll tell you what-!"

"GUYS!" Jane shouted, causing the two of us to halt our argument and glance at her. She shrunk slightly at our stares and reverted to her normal tone, "Can you please, just, stop with the fighting right now? Save it for later. Every second we waste is another second where I'm possessed with this Aether, and I'm pretty sure none of us want that around here."

I glanced at Odin and then looked away, crossing my arms and frowning stubbornly, "I'm not apologizing."

Jane sighed quietly, ignoring me as she looked at Odin, "Now, does your book happen to mention how to get it out of me?"

"No. It does not," the Allfather replied flatly.

"Of course not," I mumbled with a sigh, "that would make things too easy."

"Do not fret, Jane," Thor said reassuringly to the distressed scientist, "we will help you through this. Right, Robin?" he looked at me pointedly.

I nodded absently, "Yeah, we will." I stared at my friend's furious gaze and cringed slightly, "You look like you're gonna kill me."

"You continue to behave like this, and I just might," he grumbled. He turned and led Jane out of the library, probably to go look for another solution to help the dying girl. I went to follow after them, not wanting to stay in Odin's presence any longer than I needed to, but a firm hand stopped me short, its hold on me a little painful.

"Where do you think you are going?" Odin asked me harshly.

"Uh . . . with my friends?" I asked him with a meek grin, not enjoying the look in his eyes. If looks could kill, I would've died over and over for an eternity with the amount of rage in the Allfather's piercing gaze. My big mouth got me into deep shit yet again.

"I disagree," he said, "You believe you can act so brashly in this realm without penalty?"

"Uh . . . yes?" I asked uncertainly, and then sighed at his foul expression towards my answer. "I tried to be polite," I added.

"Trying is not the same as succeeding," he replied flatly.

I furrowed my brow in slight worry, "Are you going to imprison me, sir?" I was good at escaping from prisons, but those were human jails. I wasn't so certain about escaping otherworldly confinement. Perhaps now was a good time to try and be a little more respectful, although I didn't believe that Odin deserved it.

The King of Asgard shook his head very slightly, "No. I do not want to see you in this realm, and I certainly don't want to hold you here longer than needed. There is no reason for you to be here, human."

"Oh, for fuck's sake, I just wanted to see Loki!" I growled, crossing my arms indignantly.

"And yet you are nowhere near him. You should not have returned."

"I don't know where the hell he's at!" I protested, "And Thor was constantly saying, 'Oh, no! You're not going anywhere without me!' Blah, blah, blah."

"This time, I will ensure that you are permanently banished," Odin replied flatly.

"That won't be necessary," I heard a strong, feminine voice echo in the chamber. Odin and I turned to the new sound in surprise. I didn't expect to hear someone else in the area, the chamber was pretty deserted aside from the Allfather and I. But, advancing towards us in her regal and elegant manner, was the familiar and commanding figure of Frigga.

"My Queen," Odin greeted her, bowing his head slightly and smiling at her affectionately despite his anger.

I stared at the Queen of Asgard with wide eyes for a few moments before I blinked into focus and shook my head. "Hi, Frigga!" I said with a relieved smile and a wave. I definitely preferred her over her husband, that much was certain. She seemed a lot more pleasant, to me.

Frigga chuckled softly and nodded slightly, "Hello again, Robin," she paused and glanced at Odin, "I shall speak with her alone."

"Are you certain?" the Allfather asked, "I don't trust her."

She smiled at him, "I'm certain." She turned her blue gaze to me and motioned me forward, "Come with me."

Feeling both relief and fear, since I didn't really know her all that well, I walked forward and followed Frigga out of the library and into the gilded corridors of Asgard. I was just glad to be out of that room and away from Odin. I'm pretty sure he wanted to kill me, whether that was because of my actions, or because of combining my actions with my close relationship with Loki, I had no idea. Whatever the case, he hated me and I hated him. And I was perfectly fine with that. I glanced sideways at Frigga, watching her walk with excellent posture beside me. I couldn't help but feel a little out of place with my rather boyish gait. Shaking my head, I finally broke the awkward silence between us, "Thanks for butting in back there," I said quietly, "How'd you know we were there?"

She looked at me and smiled gently, a little smile that reminded me of my mother, Anya. The smile threatened to bring tears from my eyes. "Thor sent me," she said, "he was going to go back when he realized you were not with them, but I offered to go in his place." She chuckled, "My son feared that you would end up killing yourself with careless words."

I rubbed the back of my head a little bashfully and laughed nervously, "Ah, yeah . . ."

"It seems that I had arrived just in time."

"Yeah, I guess so." I sighed and looked up at her, "Look, I'm . . . I'm sorry I keep insulting your husband," I said quietly, not used to giving an apology to people, especially when I still felt like Odin deserved at least a little bit of the sass I gave him.

Frigga chuckled softly, "I was curious about that. Apparently you had fought with him earlier today as well using rather colorful language."

I smile guiltily at her, "You know about that?"

She looked at me with a perceptive expression, "I know everything that occurs in this palace, Robin. I assume you fought with him again?" she raised an eyebrow as she questioned me.

"Yeah," I said quietly, "I, uh, kinda called him a hypocrite." I gaged her surprised expression before I whispered almost inaudibly, "I'm so sorry." I really didn't want Frigga to be on my bad side.

"Oh dear. Are you _trying_ to banish yourself?"

"No! I swear I'm not doing this on purpose!" I pleaded, "I'm normally able to hold back my comments, but, recently, it's like my mouth has no filter and just says what I think. I don't mean to, but I just let one comment slip and I can't stop talking."

"I see," she said softly as we walked down the long hallway, passing a few radiant gardens along the way, "Is there anything else odd happening?"

I looked at her expression, not really knowing what she was thinking. "You don't have to worry about it," I said, "It's nothing."

"You can tell me."

"Well, it's just. . ." I trailed off slightly, putting a hand to my forehead and slowing down. There it was again, that feeling of inexplicable exhaustion. I should really lay off the chocolates, if I got tired from walking so much. I used one of the nearby walls to steady myself, but ending up sliding to the floor so that I could sit down. Leaning my head back against the wall, I rested there for a few moments, relieved to finally be resting instead of moving around or wasting my energy by arguing with people.

"Are you all right?" Frigga asked me, stopping beside me and furrowing her brow in concern.

"I'm okay," I said softly, "Just tired." I looked up at the Queen of Asgard, "Do I look pale to you?" I asked her.

"No, why do you ask?"

"I just," I sighed, "I feel like I might be getting sick, I don't know. This isn't really normal for me at all. Ugh, I hate it."

"Perhaps we should take you to the physicians," she suggested.

"But I wanna see Loki," I protested with a slight pout.

Frigga lauged softly, "How many times have you uttered that phrase today?"

"A lot. But everyone goes about their daily business, still. No one wants to take me to him, so . . ." I sighed, "Listen, I can hold off seeing the physicians until after I see him. I'm sure that whatever I may be coming down with is not that serious." I glanced up at Frigga, spying a knowing grin on her face that I had seen many a time before on Loki's own features. "Unless you know something I don't?" I said uncertainly.

She laughed softly and helped me to my feet, despite my protests against it, "Let us visit the healers," she said, guiding me further down the hallway before entering the large, stone room where I had been not too long ago earlier. The physicians made me rest on the table of the Soul Forge, advising me to stay still so that they could pinpoint any ailments I might've had. Frigga explained to them my little episode of fatigue as they started everything up. Soon enough, a golden energy surrounded me, and I couldn't help but want to reach out to touch it.

"Be still," the healer working the Soul Forge ordered, lightly slapping my hand away. I snatched my arm back and closed my eyes to help remove the temptation to touch the energy field I was encased in.

I opened an eye slightly as fear entered my thoughts, "Please tell me I'm not dying of anything," I said, looking at the physician with a wide expression. She widened her eyes in surprise as she studied the energy in the Soul Forge. I panicked slightly as I saw her look, "Oh God, I am, aren't I?" I asked worriedly.

She looked at me, seemingly amused at my expression as her own turned into a smile, "Congratulations."

"What's so good about dying?!" I replied, my fears taking over my words.

The healer laughed softly, "You are not dying, relax."

"Then what's wrong with me?" I asked irritably.

"Absolutely nothing."

"Then why did you widen your eyes?" I accused, "I _am _dying, aren't I?"

"No-"

"I am! And you just don't want me to freak out about it!"

"No-"

"It's obvious! Oh shit, this sucks!"

"Robin," Frigga cut in gently. I glanced at her as she spoke, "Let her finish," she said.

"Sorry," I responded quietly.

The healer laughed softly and shook her head in amusement, "It's all right, my Queen, she is most likely unused to being an expectant mother."

I narrowed my eyes, my brow furrowed in complete and utter confusion. My ears must've been failing me, as I didn't believe what she had said. "I'm sorry, what?" I asked, looking at the physician with a puzzled gaze. Nothing in the entire universe could have prepared me for her words.

"You're pregnant."


End file.
